Title: Following Everything Closely: Narrative Presence in Luke 1-2
Abstract: The narrator of Luke's Gospel will not be ignored by his reader. The story he has to tell is one of the (now ancient) past, and the world of that story must be recreated for the reader. Luke's narrator is not alone in telling this story; other are speaking to other readers--perhaps even to Luke's reader--of the same story. Therefore, Luke must convince his reader that his version of the story is the correct version and that his recreation of the story's world is the one in which the evens actually took place. Luke's is an important story, both for Luke and his reader. The reader's experience in the story's world has the potential to transform the way that reader perceives the real world, and Luke's narrator intends to influence the reader's perception of both worlds. The story is history, and the narrator is the authoritative recreator of that history. Lest we misunderstand our role as readers, or more importantly, his role as narrator, Luke clarifies those roles with a formal preface. Addressing his comments directly to the reader, the narrator admits the existence of other storytellers, other authorities, and of the reader who loves (and is beloved of) God. He underscores the fact that the lover of God is already familiar with the story about to be narrated, but he implies that such familiarity is not enough. The authority of this narrator lies in his attention to the story about to be told. Luke has followed all things closely (1:3;RSV); his knowledge of the story is superior, and he will guide the reader through the narrative in an orderly fashion in search of truth. The preface makes a significant claim to narrative authority, but the preface alone is not sufficient to convince the reader to adopt the narrator's perspective on either the narrative world or the real world. The narrative itself must bear out such claims to authority, and the reader's response to the narrative is too important to be left to chance or readerly whim. Luke's narrator has our attention, but his story must keep our attention in order to be effective. He must remain close to our consciousness in order to help us interpret properly the events being narrated. On the other hand, he cannot intrude so much that we refuse to take him or his story seriously. That narrative balancing act--remaining close but not too close--is the focus of this article. Luke's narrator has left signs of his presence throughout the text of his narrative, but I will concentrate on the signs of narrative presence in the infancy narratives (1:5-2:52) in an attempt to characterize Luke's narrator and his narrative techniques.(1) Following a brief discussion of the narrator's relationship to the narrative, I will explore the roles of Luke's narrator as director, reporter, and commentator within the infancy narratives. Rimmon-Kenan has developed a taxonomy by which one can characterize a variety of narrators (94). Each of her descriptive categories provides a continuum upon which any particular narrator may be placed. Narrators may be described according to their narrative level (extra- or intradiegetic), their participation in the story (hetero- or homodiegetic), their degree of perceptibility (covert to overt), and their reliability (reliable to unreliable). My interest in this essay rests on narrative techniques that determine the degree of the Lukan narrator's perceptibility, that is, clues to the narrator's presence. Such techniques, however, cannot be divorced from a narrator's level, participation, and reliability. Therefore, my discussion of Luke's narrative presence in the infancy narratives must be informed by some idea about these other aspects of the narrator. Luke's narrator clearly speaks from a level above the story. The Gospel's preface claims for the narrator a knowledge of the story and an objectivity about the story available only to one who stands above the narrative itself. In addition, the preface reminds the reader that she or he exists outside the world of the story as well. …
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-03-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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